15 December 1942
Japan's subs get their turn, 3 Allied cargo ships sunk as surface threats forces convoy to scatter; VS/B-6 dive bombers cripple a CL
Babar and surrounding seas
Between the surface contacts near Babar last turn, and spotting a task force northeast of Babar that was likely to be the KB, I ordered all cargo ships that didn't have room to dock at Babar back to Darwin. But, I'd also ordered their ASW escort, a minesweeper, to stay behind to do its titular job. Enemy subs pounced, sinking 2 cargo ships in this convoy. The minesweeper cleared 7 mines.
A task force of cruisers and destroyers approached Babar and was handed off to CVW-6 at Darwin along with some A-29s I just moved in. The A-29s got lost, and 8 of the SBDs fell out of formation and actually arrived on target before the main group, almost resulting in an intercept by 5 Zeroes and 3 Oscars trying to keep watch over the ships. Those 8 SBDs got 2 hits on the light cruiser Naka, and also attacked the heavy cruiser Aoba. The main raid was 18 Wildcats and 18 SBDs--the CAP did intercept this group but failed to get to the bombers. 2 Zeroes were shot down by the Wildcats. Sadly, this group of SBDs completely failed to score any hits. 7.7% accuracy. Ugh. One SBD was shot down by flak, another was scrapped at base due to flak damage.
The fate of the Naka will be up to their firefighting teams.
Coral Sea
Not content with 2 cargo ships down near Babar, a sub in the Coral Sea (which was probably part of the large anti-CVBG deployment in the Arafura Sea a few days ago) attacked and sank an escorted cargo ship retreating south from the vicinity of Port Moresby. The minesweeper escorting it scored some damage on the sub with a near miss, but nothing serious.
Burma and Thailand
A coastal defense battalion retreating east from Moulmein fell behind the infantry unit at the end of the evacuation train, allowing the enemy to attack and force them to surrender. LOL, just got to the combat report, that "unit" was just two guns.
Further north at the new frontline, the enemy bomber sorties against Mandalay were insufficiently escorted, allowing our CAP get get 14 Sallies with only one P-40 shot down by Zero escorts. Nextdoor at Magwe, our Hurricane sweeps fared poorly against the Tojos and Nicks on CAP, losing 3 while only splashing one Nick.
Solomons and New Britain
We had a whole bunch of ships reported in port at Guadalcanal, which I assumed were mostly damaged remnants from the troop transport convoy the Wasp trashed. We sent B-17s to bomb the port but came up empty. A few Tojos and Zeroes intercepted but they were mostly kept at a safe distance by the gunners, no losses.
Rabaul got a day off from the B-17s, but still had to deal with P-38s. We shot down 11 Zeroes and a Dinah, no losses.
Reinforcements and Refits
SS Albacore taken out of commission to begin refit at Pearl Harbor
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